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Thirty golfers named to The Ben Hogan Award Watch List

FORT WORTH, Texas (Feb. 5, 2014) – Colonial Country Club, The Friends of Golf (FOG) and the Golf Coaches Association of America are pleased to announce the list of 30 collegiate golfers named to the 2014 The Ben Hogan Award Watch List. The list is the largest since 33 players were named in 2004.

The most prestigious award in men’s college golf, The Ben Hogan Award is presented annually to the top men’s NCAA Division I, II or III, NAIA or NJCAA college golfer taking into account all collegiate and amateur competitions during the past 12-month period. The Ben Hogan Award Selection Committee, which votes during each stage of the process, is comprised of leaders in professional, amateur and collegiate golf.

Eight of the golfers have previously been named to the Watch List: Brun, Conners, Hagy, Pan, Rodgers, Weaver, Whitsett and Wyatt. Brun (2013) and Rodgers (2012) have been finalists for the award.

A list of 10 semifinalists, which could include individuals not on the current list, will be unveiled on Wednesday, April 16. On Wednesday, May 7, that group will be pared down to three finalists. The winner will be crowned at a black-tie banquet at Colonial Country Club on Sunday, May 18, prior to the start of the PGA TOUR’s Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.

The award, which was first issued in 1990 and also included academic achievement in its original list of standards, revised its criteria for the 2001-02 collegiate season to its current standard of honoring the outstanding amateur collegiate golfer.

To find the latest information on The Ben Hogan Award, its candidates and its previous winners, visit TheBenHoganAward.org and follow @BenHoganAward on Twitter.

About the Candidates

With 30 players included, the Watch List is the second biggest list since it began in 2002, behind only the 33 players named in 2004.

The Ben Hogan Award Watch List includes 15 seniors, nine juniors, five sophomores and one freshman.

The list features 6 of the top 10 golfers and 17 of the top 25 players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. It also boasts 8 of the top 10 golfers and 17 of the top 25 players in the Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking.

On the college side, the list includes 8 of the top 10 players in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin individual rankings and 19 of the top 25. It also contains eight of the top 10 players and 16 of the top 25 golfers in the Golfstat rankings.

A total of 21 universities are represented on the Watch List. Six schools—Alabama (4), California (3), Georgia Tech (2), Kent State (2), Oklahoma State (2) and Stanford (2)—have multiple nominees.

The four members of the Alabama Crimson Tide match the most ever on the Watch List by one school, tying Oklahoma State (2010) and California (2013).

This is the ninth consecutive year that Stanford has had a player named to the Watch List, the longest active streak by any school. The next longest active streaks are Alabama (7) and Illinois (5).

Nearly half (13 of the 30) of the Watch List is comprised of athletes from the Southeastern Conference (7) and Pac-12 Conference (6). The other leagues with multiple student-athletes on the Watch List include: Big 12 (4), Atlantic Coast (4), American (3) and Mid-American (2).

Five schools have a member on the Watch List for the first time ever (Tennessee, UCF, USF, Virginia and Western Carolina).

Twenty-two of the 30 golfers are appearing on the Watch List for the first time.

Three golfers (Julien Brun, Cheng-Tsung Pan and Patrick Rodgers) are on the Watch List for the third straight season.

Brun (2013) and Rodgers (2012) have previously been finalists for the award. In addition, Brun (2012, 2013), Pan (2012, 2013), Rodgers (2012, 2013) and Bobby Wyatt (2013) have been semifinalists in the past.